Miami Gardens, Fla. --- The Ave Maria women's basketball team fell to Sun Conference opponent Florida Memorial, 55-66, on Saturday evening. The Gyrenes drop to 10-8 overall, 1-5 in the Sun Conference. The Blue and Green will return to the court Tuesday night at Tom Golisano field house at 5 p.m. when they take on Northwood University.

Madison McDonald led all scorers with 25 points and recorded five assists and three steals in the loss. Annie Artise added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Gyrenes.
AMU started the game focused; scoring a 3 pointer by McDonald in their first possession. The strong defensive effort by the Lady Gyrenes forced the Lions into 11 first half turnovers. Although AMU struggled, shooting only 23% from the floor, they went into the locker room with a narrow 35-27 lead.

The Lions came out with a vengeance scoring on their first possession of the second half bringing their deficit to five. With 15 minutes left to go in the game the score was tied 38-38 before Florida Memorial went on a 10-1 run that stunned the Lady Gyrenes. In the next four minutes, AMU was able to cut that lead to three with five minutes left to go in the game but the Lions proved to be too much for the Lady Gyrenes as fouls put the Florida Memorial on the free throw line.

The Lions of Florida Memorial were strong in the paint scoring 34 points, points compared to AMU's 18 points. Florida Memorial also dominated the boards 49-33 outscoring the Lady Gyrenes 17-8 in second chance points.

Nicole Collins led the way for the Lions; scoring 14 points and adding 13 rebounds.